The Delhi government will launch a food surveillance programme starting Monday to determine quality and hygiene of the fare served in restaurants and fast food chains across the city.
The drive will cover major food hubs as well as sale of packaged food items like chips and juices. In the first phase, target areas to be covered under surveillance will be Connaught Place, Karol Bagh, Chandni Chowk, Khan Market, Lajpat Nagar and a few others, sources in the department said. The purpose of the programme is to ensure that eateries are conforming to conditions laid out in the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
"It will have a great preventive effect in the food market regarding unsafe and unhealthy food all across the national Capital, including leading food chains here," said Dr Mrinalini Darswal, food commissioner,department of food safety.
According to Darswal, this is one of the most ambitious programmes undertaken so far and the department has tied up with nine private laboratories with 'microbiological' trial facilities. Microbiological tests can detect pathogens and spoilage organisms in food which a normal chemical test facility cannot scrutinise. Earlier, the department was conducting only chemical testing due to shortage of staff and food inspectors. "We have started our microbiological food testing labs which can detect bacteria, fungus and virus inside a food item. The officials can also write their comments in reports on the kitchen hygiene of these food eateries, besides sample tests," Darswal said. The commissioner said food officials will pick thousands of food samples everyday from the market irrespective of the size and brand of an outlet. "The officials from private labs will pick up surveillance samples (for preliminary testing) and if these food samples fails at in the initial testing then the government food inspectors will pick legal samples for prosecution purpose," she said.
Food fix
Food officials said the programme was planned after they received complaints from consumers against popular food chains operating in the city. The officials said the raids will include cooperatives such as Mother Dairy, transnational food chains like McDonald's or Pizza Hut, and domestic businesses like Haldiram or Bikanerwala. "Our sole aim is to ensure hygiene and standard quality served to the people by these eateries," said Darswal.
Reacting to the programme on food safety, spokesperson for Domino's Pizza said they have always "maintained highest quality standards" and strictly adhere to all policies applicable on the food business. "We always look for areas for continuous improvement in our operations, supply chain and storage. As a practice, in case of a customer complaint, we closely investigate the matter and immediately take necessary measures," the spokesperson said.
Queries to other popular city food chains like KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds did not elicit any response.
The food and drug department of Delhi carries out surprise inspections and raids of food establishments and draws samples of food articles that can be potentially adulterated, substandard or misbranded. However, in the programme beginning Monday the scale will be wider, said officials.
As per the official process, when the department receives a complaint about an adulterated food item, a report is filed and marked to the designated district officer, after which the officer collects samples. The samples are sent for testing where the food analyst supervises the work and sends the reports back to the department concerned. Officials said the programme is part of a larger initiative to spruce up food safety standards in the Capital. "A proposal has been sent to the Central government for commissioning more food laboratories and revamping the existing ones. The Centre has agreed to fund for state-ofart food laboratories," officials at food department said.
The FSSAI recently trained at least 23,000 street vendors all across Delhi for food hygiene. "This was done under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and all the street vendors have been registered, trained food hygiene and provided with a certificate," officials said.
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